


Standing Still is Hard

by anomalousmaterials



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Airports, F/M, Feelings, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 08:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2302445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anomalousmaterials/pseuds/anomalousmaterials
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy DEFINITELY doesn't want to think about why he’s here, or any feelings he definitely doesn't have about it, or that he’s here all alone without even any of his team—</p><p>Or that Kate ran away. On a Wednesday. Without even telling him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Standing Still is Hard

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble prompt fic!
> 
> "anonymous said: Tommy meeting Kate at the airport after she gets back from LA?"
> 
> This prompt is from 2 months ago EG way before Hawkeye 20 came out, so not 100% canon compliant. I'd like to think this happens anyway.
> 
> Supposed to write a drabble > writes a 1000-word fic instead.
> 
> Also I’m so sorry for the delay the last 2 months were crazy because I was teaching 8 hours a day and that took more out of me than I thought it would. COMMENT LIKE SUBSCRIBE IF YOU'D LIKE TO SEE VIDEOS SIMILAR TO THIS ONE
> 
> WARNING: HELLA FEELINGS

Waiting is the actual worst.

Tommy kicks his feet against invisible dust, trying to imagine the millions of dust particles he’s moving around without even seeing them. Counting the floor tiles. Anything to keep from time just ticking on forever and ever until a million years pass.

He would even play, like, Candy Crush if he hadn’t already beaten it. People claim you can’t beat Candy Crush, but Tommy totally has. When you’re moving faster than the light being sucked into an event horizon, you do things like beat Candy Crush.

Or kick invisible dust around. You know. Shit happens.

He also DEFINITELY doesn’t want to think about why he’s here, or any feelings he definitely doesn’t have about it, or that he’s here all alone without even any of his team—

Or that Kate ran away. On a Wednesday. Without even telling him.

You know what you can do in New York City on a Wednesday? Anything. A whole lot of things. Anything but running away just as soon as you’re found again. Well, technically the Young Avengers found him, or he found himself, or—

That’s too complicated. Kicking dust isn’t complicated. Let’s stick with what we know, Shepherd.

But. Maybe he’s supposed to think of some crazy dialogue, maybe he’s supposed to make this a Hallmark moment… but he doesn’t do feelings, and he DEFINITELY doesn’t do words. What is he supposed to do when that purple-ass… ass walks through the gate? Scream? Cry? Cross his arms and kick his feet and refuse, outright refuse, to accept her apologies?

(Never mind that he’s totally done that with Billy and Teddy before when they beat him in one of their nerd games.)

Kate asked him to be here, though, so here he is. Waiting. Because… he’s still not sure why. Well, he is actually. If you tell Tommy Shepherd to be somewhere, he’ll be somewhere. It’s just the waiting that’s hard.

Because it makes his chest hurt and his stomach feel all funny and if he hurls those cheese fries all over LaGuardia he’ll never be able to show his face in public again.

Cheese fries. Why did he decide to get cheese fries again? Jesus.

Wait. Is that Kate’s flight they’re calling? It had a lot of 3s and 5s and 8s in it. Or something… shit.

No, it’s totally Kate’s flight. Shit. Uh. Shit. Panic time. Panic ensuing. Panic panic—

“—Tommy?”

Shit.

“Hey. I brought you a coffee fropathing.” He hands her a slightly-melted java chip frappuccino. “Your favorite.”

She puts her hand up, but stops halfway, hovering in the air awkwardly like a friggin bumblebee. “Tommy—I—” Her skin around her mouth is tight.

“It’s okay.” Tommy gives her a tight smile in return. “No need to thank me.”

“You—you—you stupid boy!” She says loudly, a tear leaking out of her eye. “I told you you didn’t have to get me coffee, but you got me coffee and I missed you and I’m going to kill my dad and I missed you so goddamn much—” That’s the last thing she says before pulling him into a stranglehold of a hug. He wasn’t expecting that, so he’s left with his hands awkwardly outside of a hugging position while she clutches onto him like a whelk. 

They stay like that for a long time, and Tommy watches as people come and go around them, crowds swirling around them like they aren’t even there. The eye of the storm. Maybe this is what it feels like to chase a tornado—to feel so nervous and so much adrenaline chasing the damn thing, hoping to catch a glimpse, and then when you get caught in the middle of it you can’t bring yourself to feel a thing. You’re just stunned, lost, confused.

Maybe that’s how it is.

Or maybe he should say something.

“Why’d you leave then?” he whispers, voice hoarser than he expected, barely able to seek out the words. “Why?”

He’d felt so betrayed. He’d sat in that dumb apartment and not come out for like a week except to tip the pizza man, thank him, and go back to his bed and eat the pizza. He’d sworn off human contact for good.

But right now he doesn’t know what to feel.

She’s quiet too as she pulls back, as she tries to look him in the face but finds nothing except a messy fringe of white hair. “I—” A breath. “It wasn’t you.”

“‘It’s me,’” he finishes for her, mocking. “Yeah. I’ve heard that one before, Bishop. Real creative.”

“Tommy—I’m sorry. I really am. I should have said something, but Clint—he just made me so. Mad. I don’t know. It was good for me, but I don’t know if I can ever justify it in terms of you. But I’m back. And better than ever. And that means—” She takes his chin into her hands, pulling up his teary face so they finally meet eye-to-eye. “If you’ll let me… Can we start over? Can we be Young Avengers again?”

“I don’t know if you can ever really start over,” Tommy says, but backs up quickly. “What I mean is—”

“No, I know. And if you can never forgive me, I understand, but—” Her face is so hopeful, and despite everything, Tommy’s heart lifts a little.

“Will you wear the sideboob costume again?” He almost-smiles at her, and her expression turns wry.

“No, Thomas Shepherd, I will not wear the sideboob costume again.”

“Then I don’t know if we can reconcile our creative differences.” He’s smirking. He really is.

She gives a small laugh. “Big words, Shepherd.”

“Yeah, I use those sometimes. But sometimes—”

They’re really close, all of a sudden, and her lips are open and her eyes meet his and—they kiss. Lips tasting like salt, meeting warm, and good, and everything.

Sometimes, you just don’t need words at all.


End file.
